Selene's head snapped back and forth between the dying Lucian and the monstrous Victor. Her voice was thin, rising in panic. "It can't be true."
Lucian's lips curved into a wet, bloody smile. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and down his chin. "Don't you want to know where the Dragon Ball is?"
He coughed, a spray of dark blood spattering the stone floor. "Come closer, Selene. You'll know the truth."
Victor's patience shattered. With a roar that was pure animal, he lunged forward, his gnarled hand reaching for Lucian's head. He wanted this disgusting, lying creature dead. Completely dead.
A blur of movement intercepted him.
Michael, now conscious, slammed into Victor's side with enough force to send the massive elder stumbling backward, skidding on the stone. The newly transformed hybrid straightened, his body caught in a grotesque state between two forms. Half vampire, half werewolf. His features, twisted in a snarl, bore an unsettling resemblance to Victor himself.
"I know the real reasons behind the war," Michael said, his voice a strange, layered growl. He looked at Selene. "The truth about vampires and werewolves."
Through Selene's scouter, the readings on Michael flickered and climbed, beeping in her ear. As a source blood, Michael had absorbed both Lucian's werewolf essence and a Death Dealer's vampire blood. The fusion had catapulted his power past Lucian's level, bringing him dangerously close to Victor's own strength.
Victor recovered his balance instantly and snatched his fallen silver sword from the floor. In a flash of movement, he appeared behind the kneeling, broken Lucian. The blade swept through the air in a clean, silent arc.
Lucian's head tumbled free from his shoulders. Blood sprayed in a wide fan across the floor.
A few hot droplets splashed against Selene's lips. Without thinking, she licked them away. The moment the metallic-tasting blood touched her tongue, Lucian's memories flooded into her mind like a dam breaking. She gasped, her eyes widening, then rolling back as the visions consumed her.
Victor turned his attention to Michael, his sword still dripping. "A mixed-blood abomination. You deserve death as well."
He raised the blade and charged.
The sharp, high-velocity crack of a rifle shot echoed through the chamber, completely different from the earlier gunfire.
Victor's sword spun from his grip, hit by the round, and clattered uselessly across the stone floor. He whipped around, his monstrous face contorted, searching for the shooter.
Mr. X stood in the shadows of a far tunnel, his custom rifle still raised, a wisp of smoke curling from the barrel. At this range, several kilometers was nothing. The weapon's precision made up for what his base power level lacked. Eight points of combat power meant little when you had perfect aim and the right tools.
Beside him, Alexei rolled his massive shoulders, looking every bit the super soldier he was, his arms crossed.
Victor's expression twisted into something ugly. "This is a private matter between our clans. Why interfere?" His voice dropped to a dangerous growl. "That mongrel doesn't even have the Dragon Balls anymore."
Alexei made a show of cleaning out his ear with his pinky finger, then examined it before blowing on it. "We just heard quite the story, Victor. Apparently, you sucked a human family dry, murdered them all, and then turned their daughter into your personal tool."
He grinned, a cold, humorless expression. "You're going to pay for that."
Mr. X's voice cut through the tension, flat and cold. "The Fraternity sentences you to death."
Victor's face darkened, but he kept his voice level, trying to regain control. "That was hundreds of years ago." He gestured dismissively, as if swatting a fly. "And it's only one side of the story. Why would I break my own rules?"
Mr. X didn't lower his rifle. "We'll wait for Selene to wake up. Then we'll know the truth."
Victor's gaze snapped to Selene. She stood frozen, her eyes distant and unfocused, lost in the flood of memories. He recognized that look immediately. His expression shifted. The calculation in his eyes turned to something sharper. Desperate.
"All vampires," Victor commanded, his voice ringing with absolute authority. "Kill these two. Now."
The remaining Death Dealers hesitated for only a heartbeat, exchanging uncertain glances, before their centuries of ingrained obedience took over. They turned as one toward Mr. X and Alexei, then rushed forward in a wave of inhuman speed.
Mr. X swung his rifle behind him, the shoulder strap carrying it smoothly to his back. His duster swept open as both hands pulled free the twin submachine guns holstered at his sides. The magazines were loaded with custom anti-vampire rounds. Ultraviolet compounds wrapped in silver.
His consciousness shifted. The world around him slowed to a crawl as his body entered bullet time. The vampires, who had been blurs of motion, now seemed to be wading through honey.
X's fingers found the triggers.
The twin submachine guns roared to life in a deafening, controlled staccato. Each charging vampire received the same treatment. Two rounds sizzling into the chest. One to the head. Textbook Fraternity execution pattern.
The Death Dealers dropped like puppets with cut strings. Bodies hit the stone floor in rapid succession, the impacts almost musical in their steady rhythm. In the span of three seconds, every vampire who had charged lay dead or dying, their forms smoking.
Victor stared at the carnage, his face frozen in shock.
Mr. X had moved so fast that even an elder's enhanced perception could barely track him.
"You," Victor stammered, his voice losing its authority. "Selene said you only had eight points of combat power."
Mr. X ejected the spent magazines and holstered his weapons with a fluid, practiced ease. He met Victor's gaze without blinking. "So what if it's eight? Did you really think that made you safe?"
That was the beauty of being an assassin trained by the Fraternity. Power levels meant nothing when you had precision, speed, and the element of surprise. Victor had the raw strength advantage, sure. But X had put three rounds into multiple targets while they were still processing the fact that he'd drawn his weapons.
Beside him, Alexei crossed his arms and smirked. Even with his fifty point combat rating, the super soldier knew better than to underestimate X's lethal efficiency.
Selene's eyes suddenly focused. She took a sharp, shuddering breath. She looked around, her gaze taking in the stopped battle, the corpses of her fellow Death Dealers, and the two Fraternity operatives who had appeared from nowhere. Then her gaze locked on Victor.
Pure, unadulterated hatred burned in her eyes.
"It was you." Her voice shook with a cold, building rage. "You killed my family."
In Lucian's memories, she had seen everything. The entire conversation between Kraven and Lucian. The casual contempt on Kraven's face when he spoke about her. To him, she was nothing but a joke. The stupid girl who called her family's murderer 'father.' She had also learned the truth. Lucian never had any Dragon Ball. The real reason they wanted Michael was something else entirely.
Mr. X didn't hesitate.
The moment Selene confirmed Victor's guilt, X's body shifted back into bullet time mode. He dropped his empty submachine guns and his hand snapped to the modified hand cannon holstered on his thigh. He drew it as three ultraviolet explosive rounds chambered.
His arm came up. Time seemed to stop.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The sound was concussive, shaking the cavern. Two shots punched through Victor's chest, right where his heart should be, blowing huge, smoking holes in his monstrous form. The third round drilled through his forehead, erupting out the back of his skull in a spray of bone and ancient, dark blood.
Victor's body crumpled.
The entire room fell silent. The remaining werewolves and the few surviving, non-combatant vampires stared in stunned disbelief. Their elder, one of the original three, had just been executed like a common criminal.
Michael's enhanced senses had tracked the shots, but his body couldn't have reacted in time. Whatever these two were, they operated on a different level entirely.
Selene rushed forward and, to everyone's surprise, caught Victor as he collapsed. Even now, with massive holes burned through his chest and skull, the elder clung to life. The ultraviolet rounds were eating him from the inside out, but he wasn't quite dead yet.
"I haven't..." Victor's voice came out as a wet whisper, blood bubbling at his lips. "I haven't fulfilled my wish yet."
His hand clutched weakly at Selene's sleeve. "Selene. Collect all the Dragon Balls."
He coughed, more blood spilling. "You will inherit my position as elder."
Rage flooded through Victor's fading consciousness. This weakness. This damned, cursed vulnerability to ultraviolet light. Without it, he would have survived. He would have torn these assassins apart with his bare hands.
He didn't expect Selene to use the Dragon Balls to resurrect him. That ship had sailed the moment he'd murdered her family. But perhaps she would wish away this weakness. Perhaps she would be strong enough to do what he couldn't.
The position of elder... for hundreds of years, he truly had seen her as his daughter. The daughter he had condemned to death all those centuries ago.
Selene stared down at him, a storm of emotions warring across her face. Then, her expression hardened. She grabbed Victor's wrist and bit down hard, her fangs piercing deep. If he wanted to leave her with something, she would take his memories. All of them.
Alexei watched the scene and let out a low whistle. "Now that's a useful talent. No secrets can hide from them."
Mr. X nodded, but he could feel the exhaustion creeping in. Pushing his overclocking to maximum twice in such a short span had drained him. His muscles ached, and a dull throb pulsed behind his eyes. He'd need the medical pod after this, or he'd be useless for days.
Still, watching Victor's body finally turn to ash in Selene's arms as the ultraviolet compound finished its work, X couldn't help but feel satisfied. One elder down. The vampire power structure just got a lot more interesting.